As a nod to Canada’s 150th, John A. Macdonald and Lady Agnes (aka Brian and Renee Porter) strolled the fairgrounds and Sir John A. gave a speech.

Donna Dempsey, a life-long fair goer and member of the board, said tradition, neighbours and family are what keep people coming back to the Lansdowne Fair.

“You get to see your friends and neighbours, some of whom you only see at the fair,” she said. “It’s exciting.”

Dempsey said many former residents plan their vacation around the fair so they can come home and relive the fair experience.

“It’s tradition. It’s something you’ve lived with all the years and it’s hard not to go,” she said.

Dempsey, who is almost 66, has missed only two Lansdowne Fairs in her life – once giving birth to her second son and once to attend the wedding of her brother in Scotland. She struggles to give examples of how the fair has changed (“Maybe the demolition races ...”) and finds it a lot easier to talk about how it hasn’t.

People come for the midway, the horticultural and vegetable displays, knitting, quilts and the children love the petting zoo and the animals, she said.

One thing that has changed is that the fair board has put a lot of money and volunteers’ hours into renovating and repairing the fair’s many buildings, she said.

The exhibition hall is iconic to Lansdowne and the board recently repaired the horse barns, she said.